BEIJING — President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing Wednesday evening for a high-stakes two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first visit by a U.S. leader to China in nearly nine years, but one unfolding in a far more tense and constrained atmosphere than his 2017 trip.

Where Trump's November 2017 state visit was billed as a "state visit-plus" overflowing with pageantry — a private dinner and opera performance inside the Forbidden City, children waving flags along motorcade routes and the announcement of $250 billion in business deals — the 2026 gathering carries markedly lower ambitions and a sharper edge of rivalry.

Trump touched down at Beijing Capital International Airport as security locked down the capital and global attention fixed on the world's two largest economies navigating war in the Middle East, persistent trade frictions and technological competition. Meetings with Xi are scheduled for Thursday and Friday at the Great Hall of the People.

In 2017, the tone was celebratory. Xi rolled out the red carpet, escorting Trump and first lady Melania Trump through the Forbidden City's main halls for an afternoon tea and evening performance. A military band played, schoolchildren chanted welcomes and Trump praised Xi as a "very special man." The two leaders touted what appeared to be a budding personal rapport and a new era in bilateral ties. Chinese officials unveiled a raft of memorandums of understanding worth hundreds of billions of dollars in sectors from energy to agriculture, though many later failed to materialize fully.

Nine years........

© International Business Times